Blog #3

Blog #3

Concept 1: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO refers to the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” listings on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have such results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. SEO will help website owner’s position their websites properly to be found at the most critical points in the buying process or when people need their sites.

Website owners need to create websites that provide seamless user experience and that communicate to the search engines what their intentions are so they can be recommended for relevant searches.

One of the new interesting trends in SEO is the personalization of searches. For example, if you search a restaurant which has various locations in the country, the search results that come up will be for the particular restaurant in your area. This will be due the previous searches that one does and the search engines will store information like location.

My concern with this technology is the extent with which search engines can store and use this information. With all the devices available today, sometimes I feel like my phone records every thing I do, where I go and soon am are going to marketed to whether I want or not. For example, the day I got a message on my Google app on my phone asking if I wanted Green bay packers’ tickets because I had searched Green bay Packers sometime ago.

Concept 2: Bid Simulator

Bid simulator is one of the bidding tools in Adwords used to estimate the success of a particular campaign. It estimates clicks, cost and impressions that Ads would have achieved in the past 7 days with a different keyword Max CPC bids. It simulates your past auctions using different bids on Google and search network. It also provides transparency into Adwords since setting up the initial bid can be done on estimates and there is no way of knowing where that bid stands.

The bid simulator is very useful in giving you estimates on your bid and the bids of competitors and provides information on where your bid would have been if you had used a different Max CPC.

Skill set

The most important I have learnt this session is the Keyword Planner. This is the first week that we started using the keyword planner and discovering all the different aspects that we use it to enhance our GOMC experience. It has so far been a challenge but definitely a learning experience. We are going to delve into using some of the bidding tools to improve upon our Adwords campaign.

Personally and the ASTD group, we are having challenges with the technical aspects of the GOMC challenge. The theory makes a lot of sense but it’s using the Adwords site that is offering challenges. It would be more helpful to get more hands on training.

Stokes, R. (2011). emarketing: The essential guide to digital marketing. (V 1.0 ed.). Quirk Education. Retrieved from http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/19